THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



77 



and cherries, aud if you can detect tlie black ex- 

 crescence upon them which are so common, and 

 which threaten to destroy these delicious fruits, 

 see tliat evei-y infected branch is eradicated with- 

 out cereniojiy. This course has been successful 

 in some nurseries and orchards, aud will doubt- 

 less be in others, if thoroughly adopted. There 

 are some apple trees in almost every orchard 

 that are shy bearers, and while thrifty and vigor- 

 ous, will not produce a bushel of fruit in a dozen 

 years. Let such trees be marked for grafting. 

 Do not put your trees into narrow deep holes, 

 dug in a hard soil, but let the holes be large and 

 shallow rather than otherwise, and be careful 

 that the tree in setting out is not covered but a 

 very little higher with earth than as it naturally 

 stood. Neglect of this point, not unfrequently 

 inflicts serious injuries on trees, and prevents 

 their thrift or productiveness. 



The Team. — It is enough to sicken the heart of 

 a man of ordinary feeling, to witness the wretch- 

 ed skeleton animals that are compelled, by dint 

 of flagellation, to perform the labor of the farm, 

 in so many instances. Such treatment of ani- 

 mals is not only cruel but unprofitable. It is 

 certain that one team well kept, will do more 

 work than two half starved ones, and do it at the 

 time and in the manner it should be done. It is 

 a most injudicious [iractice to allow working cat- 

 tle or horses to leave their stalls for the pasture, 

 until the spring work is mainly over. They can- 

 not deiive sufficient nutriment from the young 

 grasses, and a taste of the new, makes them eat 

 sparingly of the old, and the result is, they will 

 fall away rapidly. 



Manures. — The cardinal point to be observed 

 in the management of manures, is to apply them 

 in that state, and to tho^'e crops which are the 

 most benefitted by their application. When ma- 

 nures are left in the yards over the siuimier, and 

 exposed to the action of sun and rain, they are 

 deprived of much of their value. The most 

 efficient parts pass away and are lost to the farm. 

 If manures are not applied to the spring crops 

 of corn and lOots, they should be heaped with 

 layers of earth, vegetable mould, marsh mud, 

 wash ol' roads and with some lime, that the salts 

 and gases produced, may be absorbed and retain- 

 ed. In this way, the value of yard manures is 

 much increased, and the quantity augmented. 

 The experiments of Chaptal and Liebig, prove 

 that the mere vegetable mould left by the 

 decomposition of plants or manure in the open 

 air, possesses little value compared with that in 

 which all the salts and fertilizing ingredients are 

 retained. 



A short time since, a committee of the French 

 Institute was appointed to examine the nature 

 and efiijcts of a new manure, represented as of 

 extraordinaiy power. It was found to be com- 

 posed of gypsum, saturated with urine, the mass 

 then dried and pulverized, and applied to plants 

 in the form of a powder. It was jjronounced tlie 

 most effective of a large variety of the animal- 

 ized manures, so mucli so indeed that the com- 

 mittee recommended great caution in its use. A 

 small quantity applied to corn, garden plants, 

 &c. gave a most raj)id and vigorous growth. 

 Would it not be well for our farmers to make 

 some experiments with this material ? It is cer- 

 tainly within the power of all. We hope that 

 jjoudrette and bone manme will also be fairly 

 tried ; on these points we should be negligent no 

 longer. 



Harrowing Meadows. — Meadows, where 

 they have not been subjected to an occas- 

 ional ploughing and cropping, are apt to become 

 exhausted of good grasses, ground close and hard, 

 and the roots mossy. A dressing of ashes or 

 plaster will do much good, but a thorough har- 

 rowing with a fine toothed harrow, will material- 

 ly aid such dressing and give a sweeter, better 

 herbage. Previous to the harrowing, glass seeds 

 of the best kind should he sown, which will be 

 covered by the process, and a new healthy crop 

 will be the result. The experiments of Liebig, 

 in ascertaining the effects or necessity of alkalies 

 in the formation of grasses are interesting, and 

 show conclusively the loss those sustain who sell 

 their ashes, or allow their leached ones to remain 

 without use, when their fields would by them 

 be so much benefitted. 



The crops of Cotton and Corn in Louisiana and Missis- 

 eippi have received much pamage Trom recent high wiodsj 



From the New York Evening Post. 

 The Wheat Region of the North West. 



A memorial presented to Congress at last ses- 

 sion, by Joshua Leavitt, a citizen of New Jersey, 

 praying " the adoption of measures to secure an 

 equitable and adequate market for American 

 wheat," contains a great deal of useiitl and inter- 

 esting information. 



The four Northwestern States, with the two 

 Territories, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wis- 

 consin, and Iowa, include a superficies of 236,241 

 square miles of land, not embracing the portions 

 still held by the Indians. Their present popula- 

 tion is 2,970,696, being only 12. 6 to a square mile. 

 Of this land 24. 5 acres to each inhabitant is in- 

 dividual property— the rest belongs to the Gener- 

 al Government. That part of it held in private 

 ownership may bo regarded as in a state of culti- 

 vation, and exceeds by more than five millions of 

 acres the quantity under cultivation in the United 

 Kingdom. 



Forty years ago, the whole civilized population 

 of this district was but 50,240 ; now it is 2,970,- 

 696. The ratio of increase during each decen- 

 nial period of this century is 483,202 85, or 102 

 per cent. The niunerical increase of the last ten 

 years is 1,502,604, being more in number than 

 the whole increase of England and Wales during 

 the first sixty years of the last century. The in- 

 crease per cent, is greater than the increase per 

 cent, of England and Wales during the wliole of 

 that century. 



The soil of this vast region is as fertile as any 

 in the globe, free from mountains, rocks, swamps, 

 and barrens ; the climate is favorable to almost 

 every kind of production, and the people who in- 

 habit it, are industrious, enterprising, hardy and 

 intelligent. Nothing but the obstructions which 

 Governments place in the way of free trade, can 

 therefore prevent this immense country from be- 

 coming one of the most populous and thriving 

 regions in the world. 



The chief of these obstructions are to be found 

 in the existing corn laws, as they are called, or 

 laws prohibiting the free importation of grain, of 

 Great Britain and France. The corn laws of the 

 former nation, adjusted to a variable scale, by 

 wliich the duties rise as the price of grain falls, 

 or fidl as the price of grain rises, originally in- 

 tended as a protection to the landed interest, have 

 been found to operate most disastrously, while 

 they afford little or no protection to the agricul- 

 turists, in consequence of the fluctuations of 

 which they are the cause: they have imposed ftt- 

 teis on manufacturing industry, and occasioned 

 alarming embarrassments in trade. Says the 

 memorial : 



" The tendency of this system to general im- 

 poverishinent, and to the increase of misei^ and 

 discontent among the poorer classes, is already 

 awakening intense observation in Gi-eat Britain. 

 The manufactories stop work, because orders do 

 not come from America ; and the orders are not 

 sent, because that with wliich payment might be 

 made to a large amount will not be received on 

 any just and reasonable terms. The goods are 

 wanted here, and our free industry is abundantly 

 able to produce the means of payment; but tl/e 

 great staple of the northwest is under an inter- 

 dict. The operatives are thrown out of employ- 

 ment, and reduced to the lowest means of sub- 

 sistence, and unable to consume a full measure 

 of the products of agriculture, and thousands are 

 made paupers, and become an absolute charge 

 upon the laud. The consumption of agricultural 

 |)roducts is diminished ; the agricultural laborers 

 share the common distress; and agriculture it- 

 self, the very object sought to be benefited by this 

 lumatural arrangement, is oppressed by its own 

 protection. It is demonstrable that a well-em- 

 ployed, well-paid, well-fed, prosperous communi- 

 ty of operatives would consume and pay for more 

 agricultural products, in addition to the wheat 

 they might impoit from America, than a depress- 

 ed and starving community would without the 

 wheat." 



How important to both nations is a mutual in- 

 terchange of products ? The growing popula- 

 tion of Great Britain, the deficiencies of her har- 

 vests, and the uncertain supplies to be derived 

 from the nations on which she has heretofore re- 

 lied, must turn her attention to the Northwestern 

 States so admirably adapted to the supply of her 

 wants. From the Baltic countries she can ex- 

 pect nothing, because they are supposed already 



to have reached tlieir maximum of production ; 

 Ireland furnishes little more grain than what will 

 soon be necessary for her own use ; the wheat of 

 the Black Sea is of an inferior quality ; while the 

 cost of freights from Odessa is enormously dis- 

 proportioned to the worth of the article. The 

 Northwestern States must therefore become the 

 great producino- region. 



But it is in the power of the Federal Govern- 

 ment to prevent this natural aud desirable con- 

 summation. If it establishes a high tariff, it ex- 

 cludes the British manufacturer from our mar- 

 ket ; he has nothing wherewith to purchase our 

 agricultural products ; the demand for the staple 

 of the Northwest is delayed or destroyed, and a 

 large portion of the people of the two nations 

 will be compelled to sliift for themselves as 

 they can. Let a more liberal policy, however, 

 be adopted, and what will be the eflect ? We 

 answer, in the words of the memorial before us : 



" There would then be a constant market for 

 wheat in England, to which the uncommonly uni- 

 form climate of the Northwest would furnish a 

 constant and full supply ; and the whole returns 

 would be required in British manufactured goods, 

 generally of the description that yield the great- 

 est profit. Immediately, orders would go from 

 this country to set every wheel, and spindle, and 

 hammer, in motion. Immediately these States 

 would be willing to tax themselves for the inter- 

 est of the public debt, because they would see 

 how taxes could be paid. Immediately the State 

 stocks would rise, because the interest would be 

 secured, with a certainty that the public works 

 would be completed and rendered productive. 

 The manufacturing industiy of England, and 

 the agricultural industry of the Northwest, would 

 be stimulated to the highest productiveness, by 

 the best of all encouragements— the hope of a 

 fair reward. The great cotton staple, too, would 

 feel the benefit of a new and healthy impulse 

 given to trade. The public works would be fin- 

 ished, and the lines of communication now open 

 would be thronged with freight. New York 

 would abolish her duty on salt, for the sake of 

 securing to her own enlarged canal the trans- 

 portation of the produce from the Ohio, the Mau- 

 mee, the Wabash, the Illinois, and the Wiscon- 

 sin canals, now strongly tending in that direc- 

 tion. 



" Tlie demand for the public lands would pour 

 a steady stream into the National Treasury on the 

 one hand, to be met by a deeper current from the 

 imports on the other, furnishing an adequate rev 

 enue for the completion of our harbor works and 

 national defences. The exports, no longer con- 

 fined to a single staple, and draw n from the most 

 productive of all branches of labor — the culti- 

 vation of a rich soil that costs next to nothing — 

 would keep foreign exchanges in a healthy state ; 

 new lies of mutual advantage, and new induce- 

 ments to mutual justice, forbearance, and peace, 

 w^oiild arise between two nations of common ori- 

 gin, from whose influence the world has so much 

 to hope for ; our own manufactures would he 

 left, under their present protection, to a healthy 

 and natural growth with the growth of the coun- 

 try ; and our nation would be saved fiom anoth- 

 er tariff controversy, to occupy and embitter tho 

 debates of another political generation." 



P'or the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 

 Some courteous Angel guard my pen. 

 While I describe a Farmer's Wife, 

 In her the poor do find a friend 

 To guide them through this life. 

 Before the King of day doth rise 

 To journey round the earth, 

 Before tlie stars fade from the skies, 

 She quits her downy herth ; 

 Then with a joyful lovely song 

 She to lier labour goes, 

 She neverjoins the idle throng 

 That seek their own repose. 

 Her mind is strong and nolile too, 

 She judges all things right ; 

 She is surpassed but by few 

 She's courteous and polite ; 

 She seeks not to adorn with gold, 

 But looks upon the mind, 

 There nobler beauties doth behold, 

 Than she in gold can find, .\. W. V. 



Somtrtworth. N. I[. 



